In this video I reveal how I negotiated the short sale on an apartment building clear across the country. Bank was fixed for a LONG time in getting its price. We got ours! Go here to learn more on how to negotiate with the banks and to hear a LIVE series of short sale bank negotiation calls.

Exciting news! We just got approval on two more short sales. One residential, one commercial. Check out this video to find out how I successfully negotiated the deal.
Go here to find out more on how you can negotiate your short sales like the pros in NO TIME!

]]>http://deanedelson.com/2010/03/%e2%80%9cwhen-the-banks-won%e2%80%99t-budge-1%e2%80%9d-master-short-sale-negotiations/feed/0The Urge to Not Judgehttp://deanedelson.com/2009/09/the-urge-to-not-judge/
http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/the-urge-to-not-judge/#commentsTue, 22 Sep 2009 22:57:00 +0000http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/the-urge-to-not-judge/My dog, Coda, is a toy poodle. She thinks she’s a mountain goat. Can climb steep rock and cliff faces, as good as any ram. Doesn’t need a leash. She obeys commands and sticks by my wife, daughter, or me whenever she’s out for a walk.

Four weeks ago I was walking my dog on Bell Rock Trail, just down the block from our house. Dirt trails that wind around spectacular red rock canyons.

As I was rounding a bend, my cell phone rang. I answered it. A woman walking her black lab was passing me as I talked on the phone. Coda was right behind me. All of a sudden this woman was yelling at me.

“Hey, ya Chucklehead! Is that phone call more important than your dog?! Huh? Ya Chucklehead!!

Sweet Myrtle! Where did that come from?

My first impulse, my first bodily reaction when someone attacks me like this, is to pounce on them with my words. Usually with something sarcastic or quippy. A REACTIVE retort at the very least.

However, I didn’t do that. For some reason, I didn’t offer a ‘come back’ to her attack. I didn’t go to that place. My brain was working on some other plane. Neurons of compassion instead of anger were firing away.

What came out of my mouth was, “Thank you.”

When I got home, I told my wife what happened. It really affected me.

For the next few weeks, I would jokingly approach my wife and refer to myself as a Chucklehead. I had no anger or animosity toward this woman, and figured something must have been going on in her life to react the way she did. I didn’t judge her for it. Nor did I condemn her.

Every time I walked the trail with my dog from that day on, I wondered what would happen if I bumped into her again. I heard the word “Chucklehead” in my head. I’d never been called a Chucklehead before, but I’m guessing what I was feeling was how an actual Chucklehead must feel.

Yesterday I took my dog to the trail again. As I walked on a narrow stretch of path, guess who was coming toward me with her dog? I picked up Coda so she could pass me. As she passed, she stopped and looked at me.

She said, “I owe you an apology. I was really rude to you last month and you handled it really well, with what you said. I’m sorry. I was having a bad day.”

I said, “I appreciate the apology. Thank you.” As she walked away, I called to her. “What’s you’re name?”“Amy”“I’m Dean.”

I watched as she walked with her dog toward the main trail.

Now when we’re out on the trail, we can pass each other and say hi. And I am no longer a Chucklehead.

I remember this whenever I’m talking to loss mitigators at the bank. Aware of the crappy day they may be having. To show compassion, to realize what they’re going through has nothing to do with me. And by caring, you can change their day.

]]>http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/the-urge-to-not-judge/feed/2I Wanna Smack Seth Godinhttp://deanedelson.com/2009/09/i-wanna-smack-seth-godin/
http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/i-wanna-smack-seth-godin/#respondThu, 17 Sep 2009 04:23:00 +0000http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/i-wanna-smack-seth-godin/You heard me. I wanna smack Seth Godin. Not because he done me wrong, or got up in my face, but because he provokes. He stirs up my soup. He says things that deep down you know you should be questioning about yourself and your business, things you cover up and hate to admit to, but never do.

The guy pushes buttons. He pushes my buttons. One minute I’m reading his blog or one of his books and get all excited about some new idea or blazing insight or unique spin on an old paradigm, and the next I’m ticked at myself for not following through on something, or zooming, or looking at my business the way I should be looking at it…like through a ferocious lens. (He’ll appreciate the ‘lens’ reference…squidoo)

He’s provoked me a lot lately. The provocation is usually a fine mix of inspiration and self flagellation. I get all hepped up about the idea, ready to implement, can’t wait to show the world the light bulb glowing above my head, while at the same time saying to myself, “Well why didn’t I think of that! How come I’m not already doing that? It’s so darn obvious!”

]]>http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/i-wanna-smack-seth-godin/feed/0Miracle of Miracles…The Short Sale Lender Called ME!http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/miracle-of-miracles-the-short-sale-lender-called-me/
http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/miracle-of-miracles-the-short-sale-lender-called-me/#commentsSat, 12 Sep 2009 15:51:00 +0000http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/miracle-of-miracles-the-short-sale-lender-called-me/I got a call from a loss mitigator yesterday. Did I just get punk’d by Ashton Kutcher?

When I saw the red hold button blinking on my phone, and my office manager IM’d me that this particular mitigator was on hold, my body reacted as if someone needed immediate medical attention. “Drop everything!! Get a doctor!! Code Blue!!”

You always HOPE that the bank will call you back. They rarely do, but despite the fact you still hold on to that tiny shred of hope, that morsel of divine intervention.

This was a 2nd lienholder. We were waiting on approval from them, to take $1500 on a $20k payoff. We already had approval from the 1st, and the funding close date is 10days away.

So as I stared at the hold button, I hesitated to release it. As I have a tendency to do sometimes, my mind raced to the worst case scenarios…

The mitigator was calling to say they wanted full payoff and wouldn’t settle for less.

They were calling to say they knew about the simultaneous closing and no dice, they’ll take the house to auction.

They needed 600 more days to review the file.

They had to do another BPO.

He was leaving the company and another mitigator was taking over the file.

The FDIC just raided them and were being absorbed by Bank of America.

The loan was bundled in a CDO and they couldn’t find the note.

I picked up the phone. His name was Mark. He said he was calling to say he was writing up his review for submission, and his opinion to the investor was to approve the deal. He’d have an answer for my by Monday or Tuesday. I thanked him and hung up the phone.

I took myself off the oxygen tanks and breathed a sigh of relief. And then something happened. I felt really special. Heck, I should feel special. Nobody else gets a return phone call from loss mitigation.

Is it okay to feel cocky sometimes?

]]>http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/miracle-of-miracles-the-short-sale-lender-called-me/feed/1End Buyer Funding on a Short Salehttp://deanedelson.com/2009/09/end-buyer-funding-on-a-short-sale/
http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/end-buyer-funding-on-a-short-sale/#commentsThu, 10 Sep 2009 02:32:00 +0000http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/end-buyer-funding-on-a-short-sale/If you’re having issues and snafus closing your short sale deals because of your end buyer’s lender, you may want to look at controlling that aspect of the deal. It’s becoming more and more prevalent these days that snags arise as conventional lending guidelines and seasoning issues get goofier and goofier.

I found that when I have an end buyer use my lender, there aren’t any problems in closing deals. But when the end buyer uses their lender, the chance for something going haywire is so much greater.

This happened to me last week. As soon as I got short sale approval, I told my listing agent that I wanted to shuffle the buyer to my lender. She said the buyer is pretty insistent on using their mortgage broker. I called the broker and introduced myself. I explained that since short sales are so time sensitive, and had to close by a certain date, that I preferred to have the buyer use our lender, who can close very quickly.

The broker said she had 21 years experience with fast closings and VA loans. She never had a problem. The buyer was a vet. Against my better judgment, I didn’t press the issue to use my lender. BIG MISTAKE. 7 days before the close date, and 8 days before the foreclosure auction, the buyer didn’t qualify for his VA entitlement. I was ticked at myself for not following through. This could have been avoided entirely if I used my guy.

We immediately put another offer in to the short sale lender. The investor was Freddie Mac. They declined the offer, saying it was too close to the auction to review and they wouldn’t postpone. So they took it to sale.

All I can say is: control as many aspects of the short sale as possible.

]]>http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/end-buyer-funding-on-a-short-sale/feed/1Another Successful Short Salehttp://deanedelson.com/2009/09/another-successful-short-sale/
http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/another-successful-short-sale/#respondTue, 08 Sep 2009 01:49:00 +0000http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/another-successful-short-sale/We just got approval on another short sale. No matter how many times you do this, it’s always exciting getting that approval letter spitting out of your fax.

We had a cash buyer lined up for a while, and because the price of the house was so attractive, the buyer stuck with us. We created a sweet spread for a profit of $31k.

The cool thing about this deal was that because it took awhile to get approved, we submitted a lower offer than the original one they were reviewing. We forced another BPO because the investor’s guidelines required a new valuation of the house after 60 days of non-decision and no movement on our offer.

So the delay in getting us an answer actually helped us create a greater spread.

It’s very frustrating when your short sale offer takes forever to get approved. Buyers get fed up and rescind their offer. But the upside is…after so many days you can request another BPO to be done.

If you’re in a declining market, you WANT to make sure the bank does another valuation. And when this happens, make sure you submit a new offer…much lower than your previous one.

We’ve done this on a good percentage of our short sales with great success. Try it…you’ve got nothing to lose.

]]>http://deanedelson.com/2009/09/another-successful-short-sale/feed/0More Bank Failureshttp://deanedelson.com/2009/08/more-bank-failures/
http://deanedelson.com/2009/08/more-bank-failures/#respondMon, 31 Aug 2009 04:44:00 +0000http://deanedelson.com/?p=30A report was released today stating that bank failures are up to 84 this year. This signifies a growing opportunity to buy defaulted paper, short sales, and REOs. As an avid real estate and short sale investor, we’ve never seen opportunity like this.

Please understand this observation is not meant to diminish the severity of the economic crisis our country is faced with right now. The way I see it, investors are the ones infusing the economy with much needed cash. We’re the ones buying short sales and REOs, keeping houses occupied with families and preventing neighborhoods from deteriorating.

Yet banks don’t want to recognize this. Many of them feel investors are responsible for the mess we’re in. Ahh, but banks and institutional lenders should not point the finger. It started with the banks. If the banks didn’t loosen their lending guidelines in the first place, and permit less than credit worthy buyers from obtaining a loan, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

And yet the banks are setting up all kinds of roadblocks and guidelines to prevent the real estate investor from making a profit, as if making a profit were evil and a scourge that should be eliminated altogether. Just look at the seasoning requirements banks are instituting. More and more lenders are requiring 90-180 days seasoning on title before a house can sold to an end buyer. Pure goofiness. It should be going in the other direction. No seasoning requirements. Try this for a month and see how quickly money finds its way into the market. Credit will relax, and the economy starts flowing again.

Make it easier to do short sales, not tougher. Get inventory moving faster, get defaults off the bank books, take the money and move it forward.

]]>http://deanedelson.com/2009/08/more-bank-failures/feed/0Massive Action Produces Massive Resultshttp://deanedelson.com/2009/08/massive-action-produces-massive-results/
http://deanedelson.com/2009/08/massive-action-produces-massive-results/#commentsSat, 29 Aug 2009 19:16:00 +0000http://deanedelson.com/?p=29After watching the Tony Robbins video, and recommending it to EVERYONE I knew, I would have been remiss and a hypocrite to not follow through on the message and advice given. So here’s what I did…

After my morning swim, I headed to the sauna for my daily meditation. And instead of my usual ritual of focusing on what I choose to have in my life, I focused my intention on the RESULTS, as if I had already achieved those goals, and the euphoric feeling that’s associated with it. It was a major shift, to say the least.

I kept thinking, “Peak State, Peak State, Peak State.” Not “For Pete’s Sake,” but “Peak State.” After 15 minutes of sweating like a banshee (but unaware of the heat because of the visions I saw with my third eye), I showered quickly, got dressed, and grabbed my notebook. (I always carry a notebook with me…the basic black and white composition kind).

My head was filled with ideas. I wrote like a madman. I’m about to introduce a new product to the real estate niche, so I’d been thinking about it for some time. To be honest, I was feeling stuck. But what came out of me and onto the page was how I was going to let folks know what the product is, how it was created, why I created it, and so many of the answers I was looking for. And all this ‘stuff’ just poured out onto the page. My pen and fingers couldn’t keep up with my brain.

It was such an amazing feeling to see the results and answers I’d been searching for for weeks suddenly materialize and manifest on the page IN JUST ONE SHOT! And I can’t seem to turn off the faucet. Product ideas, marketing ideas, story ideas, copy ideas just keep flowing…days after that first initial minor tweak in focus. I can’t stop writing!

So now that I tapped that potential, took action, and manifested results, my beliefs about what is possible and what can be achieved has changed as well…from uncertainty to certainty.

Give it a shot. It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to change your world.

]]>http://deanedelson.com/2009/08/massive-action-produces-massive-results/feed/2Must-watch videohttp://deanedelson.com/2009/08/must-watch-video/
http://deanedelson.com/2009/08/must-watch-video/#commentsThu, 27 Aug 2009 17:24:27 +0000http://deanedelson.com/?p=24I just saw this video and was completely captivated. It really is a must see, no matter what you do or who you are.

It will truly inspire and get you on the right track. If you’re feeling stuck, in a rut, need a change, want to achieve a goal, feeling confused or going in circles, do yourself a HUGE favor…get quiet, turn off the phone, avoid any distractions, and don’t get up. Just focus your eyes on this wonderful piece of content. And I guarantee you’ll feel different when it’s done.